New Auction Platform

[SF]

It has got really of track and should really be in my chat thread, Start another thread mo in your own time and it will be constructive I dont know how it ended up like this

 

[SF]

Yeah I just read through it all again, and it shouldnt of really ended up like this but I am glad finally meet you and see who you are, I am 100% going to put the effort into attending one of these meets...

 

[SF]

thats fine, and I hope with your wealth of knowledge I will be able to learn something from you,

 

[Murray]

It isn't an appointment with just me. There will be plenty of others there. Do you think Murray should come as well?

I wont be attending.

 

[Murray]

To be fair it does go on pretty late. Maybe you should organise an event at your place we can attend? Mum can do the refreshments. ;-)

I'm not interested in any Paul Ross style shenanigans

 

[fuzzer]

I find the best threads are always the lively ones.

adding to what I said earlier - I think most here would agree that DL is a great platform for running auctions to achieve a 'trade' price between traders here - but I'm sure we'd all prefer end-users prices by a long way.

I think DL would be a lot more attractive/trustworthy/welcoming to said end-users with some small changes - by 'design makeover' - I just meant modernize the style slightly, not sure about the black background? maybe that's just me?... maybe even a small chat window on each auction page where bidders could announce themselves and have a bit of banter if they wanted - although I understand a lot of bidders like to remain anonymous.

I liked the idea of facebook/twitter sharing. And yes - would be nice to have some alternative auction methods as suggested earlier in the thread

If these were done - I'm pretty confident it would start attracting more end-users (guided by some good sellers) - and we may even hope to see the average price of the 'top recent sales' gradually go up and up - and therefore the whole market?

 

[Brassneck]

Unfortunately we have an absentee admin and two moderators that I believe have quite limited moderation abilities (either that or they've got other things more pressing to do).

Actually if people showed a bit more self restraint and didn't deliberately nit pick then that would help enormously. At one point I was going to delete most of the abusive and personal posts but then I know that I will get complaints for over- reacting so I didn't bother.

With my limited moderation abilities and the fact that I have full time job which means I am out of the house at least 12 hours every day, moderating this kind of thread is impossible. If moderation is another one of your skills then why not volunteer - you certainly have plenty of spare time by the looks of it.

 

[Sam]

To be fair it does go on pretty late. Maybe you should organise an event at your place we can attend? Mum can do the refreshments. ;-)


(from iPhone)

lol

Sent from my Oneplus One

 

[Murray]

RE going to domainer events

Invincible do you think you're a good poster boy for the type of people who go to these events? considering how you come across with your online persona

I mention you specifically as the poster boy because you mention going to them a lot and ask people if they are going.

 

[ian]

RE going to domainer events

Invincible do you think you're a good poster boy for the type of people who go to these events? considering how you come across with your online persona

I mention you specifically as the poster boy because you mention going to them a lot and ask people if they are going.

I wonder if he's a completely differently person when he's not behind the keyboard? Not saying whether that is a good or a bad thing though as I've never met him.

 

[SF]

Lets try and get back on topic.... if there is anything left to salvage?

 

[ian]

Attend an event and bring some method of communicating via this forum with you. I'll communicate with you via that and then in person and you can compare, deduce and publish your findings for everyone to thoroughly analyse here.

Great idea but I'll give it a miss, I worry that with the amount of invitations you send out on here, you might be struggling to fill a toilet cubicle. A funny hand-shake is compulsory right?

 

[SF]

Yeah I was just thinking that, We could do with some more ideas and thoughts..

I think most are saying DL looks very dated, although does the job and its incredibly fast loading.

 

[Sam]

I was composing a post just a few minutes ago trying to do that but I am not sure there is anything left to discuss until someone produces a formal plan for us to critique.


(from iPad - B)

This has been talked about many times in the past a few people have attempted this but without a large database of users this wouldn't work. Just look at DL that's taken years to get where it is today.

Sent from my Oneplus One

 

[Sam]

As Whois-Search will inform you, the events are usually oversubscribed.


(from iPad - B)

I'm not sure why invincible is inviting everyone maybe he need some new friends? I am involved in these event's and we get fully booked for these as people that have attended will know how good they are.

Sent from my Oneplus One

 

[ian]

What I like most about no reserve auctions is that they let the market rather than me set the value of a name and the biggest reward is seeing end users win the names at reasonable prices.

+1

I'd suspect DL would do significantly better if it didn't have the £50 reverse with an associated charge, but naturally understand that setting up and running these sites costs money. Would be happy to launch some domains on DL with no reserve if free.

End commission might be the better option, with a maximum though otherwise it would damage premium domain sales.

 

[ian]

Ian, with respect, I think the opposite is true. If you lowered the barrier of entry to zero the place would be flooded with more crap than it is now.

Yes, that is true, I completely forgot that DL offers the option of a higher reserve to those not willing to take the risk on domains they are sure will sell for more than £50. However, whilst no one wants "crap" flooding an auction site, ultimately it won't grow into the platform some have suggested they want, without a significant amount of domains to bid on. eBay doesn't survive on quality products, it survives on tat!

Aside a few full time domainers, this industry is full of chancers (admittedly I'm one of them), trying their luck, catching/buying domains they think may have value and seeing which way the wind is blowing.

That isn't to say I don't like DL though, I think it is a great internal (domainer to domainer) platform that works very well indeed, but the suggestion here is whether there is room for another platform with an alternative approach.

I'll leave it there, but what I'd love to see from DL (or another auction site) is a lower reserve with a fee to match, so £20 reserve with £2 down would be great for risking the 'hmmm, are they worth anything' domains

 

[ian]

What would the alternative approach be? Let's concentrate on DL, how would you improve it?

To be honest, I find the system 'ok' but I'm new to all this, so maybe my points are less valid based on less experience, but as it stands, the system is restricted by being mainly for internal trade, as there is no protection offered between buyer and seller.

I had an instance with a domain I sold on there where the buyer was happy to pay (was a nice bloke) but wanted some kind of proof that I owned the domain, as there are no measures in place to prove this, as changing the nameservers isn't compulsory. To comply with this very reasonable request, I added the buyers name within the address field so he could see it on whois, and was happy with that. DL need to introduce a measure to protect the buyer.

From a 'chancers' point of view, I'd like to see the introduction of a smaller fee with smaller reserve, say £25 for £2.50. It seems crazy, but many don't know the value of a domain and quite often DL is the best way to find out. The existing £5 may not seem a lot, but it can quite easily build up, combined with the registration fees and doubling up on extensions. We'd all love premium names only, but ultimately auction sites are more about the seller quality products to help build a large portfolio available at any one time, but is there a 'public' demand for buying domains in such a way, I'm not so sure.

Can't think of anything else right now, but I do like the simplicity of DL, which puts to question the need for another option. There would have to be justifiable reasons for another option, where the target market differs and can be promoted as such.

 

[AssetDomains]

I'm not sure if we need to re-invent the wheel with a whole new platform.

I do agree with others though it would be great if Denys was to give site a design a major makeover.

I'm not sure about others but I do try and direct potential end users to my sales it would be great if they were landing at a professional looking site.

Other features that would be nice maybe a way to integrate some analytics code google / statcounter to your sales pages might give an idea if end users visit the listings after you contact them.

Maybe some sort of landing page were you could give auctions a lead up period with a box to register interest in the auction. You can then have a bit more time to get the word out to end users. A couple of times I've had inquiries from people I contacted after an auction was ended.

I'm sure more of us who don't hang onto catches to long would like to see more sales like this one.
http://domainlore.co.uk/MovingBoxes.co.uk

One other thing now registration costs if you get the UK have doubled should the minimum now be set to £100

 

[Retired_Member38]

Domainlore has all of the appearance of being run from Denys' shed. First impression of it just isn't good is it? It appears to have been designed in the 90's. And there is no info of who owns the shed its run out of. No corporate info, no Vat number, no nothing. If you're being sent there without any experience of the people involved.... its not exactly inspiring confidence is it?


Domainlore needs a drastic overhaul. Not only of how it is run and functions, but how it looks and is presented publicly. If that can't or won't happen then Denys isn't isn't the person you need to take over in the UK from Sedo. You need someone to build something from scratch.